Here’s the set list for my portion of a reading at the Pop-up Poetry Festival of the West Chester Poetry Center on April 14, 2024, including nine sonnets from The Teller’s Cage and a sestina that appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of The Hudson Review:

“Valentine for LaWanda”
“Poised”
“The Atheists of Junior High”
“Round Up”
“E Pluribus”
“Daughter of a Preacher Man”
“Living in Monterey”
“Beginning with a Line from Turgenev’s On the Eve”
“The Teller’s Cage”
“Sestina on Six Words by Michael Peterson”

The reading was part of a panel titled “We Come Bearing Gifts: New Books from Four Midwestern Poets.” I read my sonnets and one sestina after Lee Harlin Bahan (organizer of the panel) read translations of Petrarch’s sonnets and a sestina from Advent and Lent, her book that’s forthcoming from Able Muse Press. I was followed by Daniel Bourne and Allison Joseph. Lee was present for the event at West Chester University, but Allison, Dan, and I all joined in via Zoom.